Canadian food safety bureaucrats continue to stumble -- and more people are sick
I started FSnet, the food safety news, shortly after the Jack-in-the-Box outbreak in Jan. 1993. Sure, Al Gore hadn’t invented the Internet yet, but those of us in universities had access, and I started distributing food safety stories.
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It all seems sorta quaint now, what with Google alerts and blogs and RSS feeds, but my goal was straightforward: during the Jack-in-the-Box outbreak, a number of spokesthingies said, they didn’t know E. coli O157:H7 was a risk, they didn’t know that Washington State had raised its recommended final cooking temperature for ground beef, they didn’t know what was going on.
So FSnet was conceived and made widely available so that no one could legitimately say, they didn’t know.
Yet that’s exactly what federal bureaucrats in Canada said last night when questioned about the delay in warning those in southwestern Ontario that lettuce from Aunt Mid’s in Detroit, implicated in a large Michigan-based E. coli O57:H7 outbreak that has stricken at least 34, had made its way across the border.
And now at least two people in Ontario have tested positive for the same strain of E. coli O57:H7.
David Musyj, president and chief executive officer of the Windsor (Ontario) Regional Hospital, said last night that authorities in Michigan issued a public-health alert about the link to Aunt Mid’s iceberg on Friday, Sept. 26, 2008, but the Canadian Food Inspection Agency didn’t bother notifying Windsor health officials until Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008.
"What happened between Sept. 26 and Oct. 1? Clearly there is a communication gap that occurred. I want an investigation to be launched into this to find out why there was a communication gap, whether it was our CFIA or whether it was the State of Michigan."
Dustin Pike, a spokesman for Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, said in an e-mail yesterday that the Public Health Agency of Canada notified the CFIA of the E. coli outbreak in Michigan potentially linked to the lettuce on Tuesday, and after determining that the product had been imported into Canada, the CFIA contacted Windsor health authorities the following morning. …
Davendra Sharma, a food-safety recall specialist at the CFIA, said the agency acted promptly when it heard of the outbreak to identify who in Canada purchased the product and to notify Windsor officials.
Again, I started FSnet all those years ago so bureaucrats and others couldn’t say, I didn’t know.
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The Michigan outbreak was first publicly reported on Sept. 16, 2008. Lettuce was identified as the primary suspect on Friday, Sept. 26 2008. Why it took until Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008 for someone at Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada or the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to notice there was an outbreak next door in product that could be shipped to Canada is baffling.
Especially because of all the bureaucrats that read FSnet. According to tonight’s numbers, 27 people at PHAC, 149 people at Health Canada, and 316 people at CFIA receive FSnet. That’s almost 500 people, and no one noticed?
Tonight, test results have, unfortunately, revealed that two cases of E. coli O157:H7 in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, are of the same strain identified in 38 cases in the United States. All of the cases are thought to be linked to shredded iceberg lettuce distributed by Aunt Mid's Produce Company. This product is distributed in five pound industrial bags to institutions such as hospitals and long-term care homes, as well as restaurants in southwestern Ontario.
Musyj of the Windsor hospital captures the failings of CFIA when he says:
"Once something is thought of seriously enough to raise a red flag, then you better call everyone affected by the red flag. You can't wait for a death to happen to notify everyone."
Although that seems to have been the CFIA policy with listeria: with 20 dead and counting, it’s a bad policy.
CFIA, what is your policy on going public with information that can prevent illness? Is your primary priority to protect public health? If so, can you provide evidence to back such a claim?
And how can any of you say you didn’t know?
Oh, and for those who see salvation in a single food inspection agency, as is often discussed in the U.S., please notice the dysfunctional mess that is CFIA.
University of Guelph: 'We take pride in our food services and food safety' and our ability to infect people with E. coli
So says the health unit, in a local newspaper report. The university didn’t actually say anything, other than to issue a Kremlinesque request to talk to people who’ve been barfing.“In the interests of the health of our community, the University is posting this bulletin. Representatives of Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health are investigating a possible E. coli outbreak.
“Symptoms of E. coli include diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea and/or vomiting. If you or a family member recently had, or currently has any of those symptoms, please call Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health at 1-877-844-8653. For more information about E. coli go to www.wdghu.org”
A university spokesthingy did tell the paper, "We take pride in our food services and food safety."
Risk communication 101: Better to come clean up front than let the details slowly – or explosively – shit out.
I feel naked without my thermometer -- when cooking
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As Bill Marler pointed out last night, Nebraska Beef tried to downplay the seriousness of its recall of over 265 tons of ground beef and components when it said in a press release, "The Company has processed over 10 billion pounds of product without a confirmed customer illness."
Not sure what confirmed means, but …
What I tried to explain with Misti was that it’s not nearly enough to expect people to just handle things safety because food safety is so simple; that pathogen loads – the sheer numbers of dangerous microorganisms on product like hamburger – need to be reduced from farm-to-fork.
If you’ve ever tried making hamburgers from scratch, you’ll know why.
The opportunities for cross-contamination -- a few of those E. coli O157:H7 moving from hamburger to hands or counters or utensils, and then somewhere else –are just overwhelming.
And if the burger does make it to the grill, it has to be cooked. As I said,
"I feel naked without a thermometer," and that brown meat is not necessarily cooked meat. "Color is just a terrible indicator. Over half of hamburger will turn brown before it's actually done.”
That’s why a risk reduction approach, beginning on the farm and right through to the fork, is essential. Especially with E. coli O157:H7.
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Wales: E. coli lessons 'were not learned'
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Mark Powell QC (no relation but a fine Welsh name), representing the families, said warnings had not been heeded following an E.coli outbreak in Scotland between 1996 and 1997 which left 21 elderly people dead."It is galling to the families that many of the observations the Sheriff's inquiry, with the substitution of the name of Tudor for that of Barr, the butcher involved in that outbreak, could be written about the 2005 outbreak. Much of what was said then could equally be said now."
The inquiry, chaired by Professor Hugh Pennington, who also chaired an inquiry following the 1996 outbreak in Scotland, is hearing final submissions on Wednesday and Thursday.
It was as if the report following the Scottish outbreak was never written, he told Professor Pennington, adding, "The families are determined that in 10 year's time, the same might not be said of your inquiry."
The inquiry’s findings and any recommendations are not expected to be published until later this year.
Why are UK butchers -- and inspectors -- apparently so lousy?
The Yorkshire Post reports today that a butcher's shop at the centre of one of Yorkshire's most serious food poisoning outbreaks was found to be "filthy" by inspectors two years before it was shut down.
About 60 people were struck down by E-coli O157 during an outbreak in Leeds in 2006 that led to an investigation into Todd's Pork and Beef Butchers in Armley and its stall at Kirkgate Market.Papers released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that Todd's was warned several times about poor hygiene standards and practices.
Hilary Cobley, whose late husband Neil was struck down by poisoning as he was due to undergo chemotherapy, was quoted as saying the outbreak was "no accident", adding,
"I don't think this happened overnight. When they shut the shop you could see the muck on the floor. It is a shame that they can't make them pay the fine."
Roast beef suspected in Omaha E. coli outbreak
State epidemiologist Dr. Tom Safranek said the outbreak was caused by roast beef served at a reception hall in Sarpy County for a private gathering of 50 to 60 people on March 26. Safranek further noted the meat was prepared at a person's home and brought to the event, but he would not say where the meal was served or what the gathering was for.Despite the sense of kinship and best intentions, there have been at least 37 reported outbreaks of foodborne illness associated with homecooked products and community dinners in North America since 1973 (http://foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/article-details.php?a=3&c=32&sc=419&id=890).
Does magic food make kids barf?
So says Sally Fallon, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation.
She adds.
"Without the green grass, you're missing a lot of vitamins. Also, it's much safer. When cows are eating green grass, you don't find pathogens in their milk."
With such statements, public advocacy becomes public health risk.
The natural reservoirs for E. coli O157:H7 and other verotoxigenic E. coli is the intestines of all ruminants, including cattle -- grass or grain-fed -- sheep, goats, deer and the like. The final report of the fall 2006 spinach outbreak identifies nearby grass-fed beef cattle as the likely source of the E. coli O157:H7 that sickened 200 and killed 4.
A table of raw dairy outbreaks is available at http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/articles/384/RawMilkOutbreakTable.pdf
Kids are often the ones that get sick.
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Do happy cows make happy milk?
Are humans safer when they’re happy? Are you? Ok. Now follow this logic…
Are cows?
I’m willing to go along with the California Cow commercial that claims “Great cheese comes from happy cows” and maybe even the only happy cows in the world come from California. Why not – the weather is nice and the people are laid-back. But does that necessarily mean their milk is safer?
In a post today on http://wewantorganicfood.com/
author, Lynn Cameron says, “If there could be a master key to safe raw milk, I think it would be contented cows.” The author contends that today, some raw milk is unsafe because some cows spend their days indoors, “living on field corn and soybeans to the degradation of their milk and the degeneration of the nation’s health.” I guess this is something akin to the cubicle complex.
Call me a skeptic, but I really need some science to back up this happy feeling. It’s nice to think that happy cows frolicking on the hill cannot produce anything bad. The author of the article rightfully makes a call to our nostalgia – to a happier time before farming was industrialized. Nostalgia is nice, but it does not make food safer. While Cameron says, “It’s not complicated science to understand that quality of life as well as diet affects cows’ milk quality,” her inability to produce that uncomplicated science leaves me completely unconvinced. This kind of thinking, that cows “raised entirely outdoors on green grass and/or hay, their milk is proven time and again greatly reduced in pathogens (bad bacteria),” has really not been proven as explained by David Renter in September 2006. “Cattle raised on diets of ‘grass, hay and other fibrous forage’ do contain E. coli O157:H7 bacteria in their feces as do other animals including deer, sheep, goats, bison, opossum, raccoons, birds, and many others.”
I’m completely in favor of good conditions and happy cows – who wouldn’t be? But even in the best conditions, microbiological contamination can happen – just as it happens in very happy homes with very content cooks. “Confinement cows” or “happy cows,” the only scientifically proven measure to reduce the risk of dangerous pathogens in milk is pasteurization.
